Modus Operandi
by We Stole Vodka From The Optic
Summary: Modus Operandi - Method of operating. Naoto wants to find the truth of Adachi's motivation to commit his crimes.


**My last poll had my readers dictating that I do the Naoto and Adachi oneshot I'd planned. Well, here you go, guys that voted! :D**

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Modus Operandi

"Hey, Shirogane."

Naoto doesn't look at him. She's staring at the place where the plexi-glass and rusty metal counter meet. Her fingers are frozen, curled around the tan phone in her left hand. She can't move.

"Shirogane, hey," She can hear his tinny phone-voice in her ears. "Look at me. C'mon. **Look at me."**

Naoto wants to slam the phone back on the receiver next to her, but she doesn't. She sits there, in the metal chair, looking everywhere except at Adachi's face. She doesn't want to look at him.

"_Calm. Control." _Yamato-Takeru whispers in her ear, a sound that sounds suspiciously like static._ "He's just another criminal. He's no longer your colleague."_

"Naoto-_chan." _He whines, mocking her. So mockingly that Naoto has to quell the desire of throwing the prison's phone at him, at his smirking smile. She continues to study the front of his shirt. It looks like a giant orange smear on the other side of the dirty glass. Adachi trembles with withheld giggles; she can see his shoulders shaking.

"Shirogane-_chan!" _

Naoto slams the phone back on the receiver and listens as the prison guards take Adachi back to his cell. She's staring at the ground, studying a giant brown stain, but she can sense the mocking smile on Adachi's face.

"_Why did you even come here?" _Yamato-Takeru asks; static in the back of her mind. _"He is nothing now. You have the truth. Do not be childish. His game is over now."_

She leaves the prison and tries not to cry on the train ride home.

"_Modus Operandi." _She tells her Persona, leaning against the cold window, a worn copy of _The Hound Of Baskervilles _in her lap. _"Method of operating. A profiling method used to find clues to the perpetrator's psychology."_

Angry static, _"Do not be childish! The case is over; you've done your job. He is nothing!"_

"_No." _Naoto shivers as her cheek turns numb from the cold. She watches the countryside go by in a smeared blur. _"No. I must know."_

"_Stubborn!" _Yamato-Takeru buzzes around angrily in the back of her skull. _"Stubborn as a mule! Stubborn as a spoilt child!"_

Naoto doesn't know what to say to that.

* * *

She's back the next day, sitting approximately five chairs away from where she last sat. Adachi is on the other side of the glass, a blurred orange smear. Her fingers are tingling as they hold the cold, metal phone. They sting.

Naoto's still not looking at Adachi's face.

"Don't you get sick of wasting your days off like this?" He asks, and Naoto is watching him wind the prison's phone's cord around his bony finger. She glances at his chin, and notices a slightly green shiner. So Naoto asks, desperate to say something, anything,

"Does it hurt?"

She wants to hit herself after she asks.

He stops winding the cord around his finger. She stares at the shiner, biting her bottom lip, wishing for the shadows of her tipped cap to swallow her whole.

"_He is nothing." _Yamato-Takeru reminds her, buzzing behind her eyes.

"Worried for me?" It's not a question, but a mocking statement. "How _kind. _So the serious Detective _'Prince' _has a soft side. How _cute."_

The urge to throw the phone at the glass grows. Naoto tightens her grip around the prison phone, as if trying to reassure herself and ultimately, finally asks,

"Why did you do it?"

He's winding his finger around the cord again. An expression of nervousness, Naoto guesses, and she leans forward slightly, straining her hearing so doesn't miss what Adachi has to say.

"Haven't we been over this, Shirogane-_chan?" _He says; she can hear the smirk in his tone. She sinks into the metal chair, and one of the spokes dig into her left shoulder. "I did it because I can."

"_Definite sociopath." _Her Persona whispers.

"Because it was fun." He adds, and Naoto tries to sink into the chair more. "There was nothing to do in that shithole."

"Nonsense." She hisses, but it sounds so pathetic. And Adachi knows it. Because he laughs, chuckles… cackles.

She gets up and leaves.

She watches the orange blur on the other side of the glass leave as well, taken away by two burly guards.

She rides the train ride home again, discovering that she left her _Hound of Baskervilles _novel at home. She's curled up in a ball on the train, left with nothing but her thoughts and a Persona that _just wouldn't be quiet._

"_Why do you insist on making him a part of your life!?" _Her Persona buzzes around like television static. _"He is nothing! Nothing!"_

"_Incorrect." _She tells the tiny Persona. _"Modus Operandi. Psychology."_

She looks at the blurring country-side, and feels something heavy in her stomach.

"_Does it matter?" _Yamato-Takeru is angry, furious.

"_After what he did…" _Naoto's eyes narrow. _"Yes."_

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Kanji is outside her apartment when she returns to Inaba. He looks worried, and Naoto feels sick to her stomach.

"Hey, Naoto…" He's blushing a little, but stands tall and proud. "I… we've been worried about you…"

"_Souji-senpai and the others are worried." _Yamato-Takeru tells her, affirms it. _"You don't wish to worry them more, do you?"_

"I am fine." Her voice shakes a little, and Kanji doesn't believe the lie. Because his eyebrows furrow.

"Naoto… where do you keep going during the day? Senpai is really worried."

"I'm fine!"

Naoto pushes past him, and slams the door of her apartment angrily.

She cries on the couch, her mind is tangled in anger and despair.

* * *

"_Oh, hey aren't you Naoto-kun?"_

"_Yes, I would be him."_

"_Oh! I'm Tohru Adachi; I've been investigating the serial murder case! Nice to meet you!"_

"_Really?"_

"_Yeah… I tell ya, there's been nothing but dead ends since this case started."_

"_I doubt you are investigating this thoroughly enough."_

"_W-What? How…"_

"_I apologize, but I am afraid I will be investigating this case from now on."_

"…"

* * *

She visits him in his cell this time. The jailer leads her down a line of yelling, screaming, jarring inmates until they reach the one farthest to the left. He's sitting there alone, looking out the dirty window in disgust.

"He's dangerous," The jailer tells her. "So I'm afraid I'm gonna have to stand out here. Just in case."

"That won't be a problem." She whispers, and the jailer opens the cell with a dirty, rusty key. He steps aside to let her in, and then shuts the door behind her with a loud, final clang. Her gaze immediately goes to Adachi's feet, to his grungy socks, and she waits for him to turn around and notice her.

He doesn't turn around, but he does say,

"Conjugal visit, Naoto-chan?" Naoto's fists ball up at her side. "Never would've thought you to be the type."

Her dark blue eyebrows stitch together, and she hears him chuckle.

"It's awfully late." He pauses, and then adds. "I was wondering when you were coming to pay me my daily visit."

She doesn't say anything, but clenches her jaw.

"It gets boring here." He says. "But I guess that's part of my _punishment, _huh?"

"Shut up." Her voice is sharp, like a double-edged sword. Adachi finally turns around, and giggles.

"Still not gonna look at me?" He laughs; guffaws. "That's what a man would do."

She glares at his socked feet.

"Oh, I forgot." The words roll off his tongue sarcastically. "You're a girl, aren't you?"

"Shut up!" If her voice was any sharper, she would've cut Adachi to ribbons.

She looks up, into Adachi's face. He's smirking, smiling that dopey, drunk smile of his. His gray eyes glitter with delight, and Naoto almost jumps across the room to punch him. But she continues to yell, scream,

"Why!? Why me!?"

Naoto's hand jumps across her mouth, covering it as she realized just what she said.

Memories of a dark night flood her mind; memories of going into Magatsu Inaba alone attack her. Memories of the stench of old coffee and too-loose suits wash over her and Naoto trembles.

Adachi smiles that disgusting smile.

"Why you?" He pauses. "Because I thought I could break you early. Make sure you didn't come after me."

Still holding her hand over her mouth, she glares at Adachi and leaves.

"_Definite sociopath." _She agrees with her Persona. Yamato-Takeru buzzes soft murmurs of comfort in her ears.

It sounds too much like television static.

* * *

Everyone is outside her apartment this time.

They stand there, watching her from afar. Souji's mouth is flat in a disapproving line.

Naoto wonders if he knows.

"Naoto." Souji says as she gets close. They're all watching her.

"Where do you keep going?" He asks, and crosses his arms.

Instead of saying anything, Naoto hugs him and cries into his shoulder.

* * *

"_Adachi!" Naoto cocks her gun, but Adachi is too close._

_He grabs her wrist, and her pistol flies from her hand, skittering across the floor of road signs. Magatsu Inaba is a dangerous place. She was an idiot for coming alone._

_His face is too close._

"_Naoto-__**chan," **__He whines, holding both her wrists tightly as she tries to twist away. "Please don't struggle. You're being such a pain in the ass."_

_He backs her into a wall. The sharp tip of a road sign digs into her shoulder._

* * *

She doesn't visit him in his cell this time. Naoto doesn't want him anywhere near her where he can possibly hurt her. And she doesn't trust the jailer enough to protect her. No one can protect her.

She doesn't want anyone to protect her. She is a man, she can protect herself.

She glares at Adachi's face. He's watching her through amused gray eyes, eyes that glitter angrily in the dim light of the prison's visiting room. She speaks first, her voice sharp, sword-like,

"Why me? Why the others?"

"I like chaos." Is his answer. "It's less boring and bland than justice. Don't you agree, Naoto-chan?"

Her fingers turn white as they curl around the tan phone.

"You're a fool." She tells him, and he grins. "You… you're nothing."

"Nothing?" He shakes his head. "Quite the contrary. Nothing to everyone else, yes. But to you… I'm not nothing to you."

"_He is nothing!" _Yamato-Takeru reminds her.

"You are nothing to me." She confirms, but Adachi is still grinning.

"You'll never forget me though, Naoto-chan."

Naoto's fingers tremble. And Adachi adds,

"Not ever."

* * *

"_Modus Operandi."_

"_Adachi is a definite sociopath."_

"_Chaos is his motivation."_

"_Hate is his game."_

* * *

Kanji is out there, outside his apartment.

"N-Naoto!"

Naoto says nothing, but stands next to him, lays her head on his chest and cries as he wraps his arms around her.

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**Thank you for reading!**


End file.
